Active Travel Route

With a busy main road running through Culbokie, CCT is keen to respond to community concerns about travel safety issues.  We want to make it easier, safer and more attractive for everyone to get about the village, enjoy the local facilities and to access public transport, on foot or by bicycle.

We were delighted to be awarded funding from Sustrans in 2019 to undertake a feasibility study and develop designs for an active travel route running through the village and out to the A9 where more frequent buses are available. More recently we decided to divide the project into two ‘bite-sized’ chunks. In phase 1 we will focus on the section within the village - but we have initial designs for both phases, so we will have a sound basis for coming back to the second phase, from Culbokie to Duncanston, at a later stage.

In broad terms the proposal for phase 1 is to reduce the speed of vehicles through the village to 20 mph, in order to increase safety and make it more enjoyable to walk or cycle. The existing footpaths will be widened to 2 metres where necessary, and there will be new footpaths so people can walk through the village without crossing the road. The existing chicanes aren't popular with motorists or cyclists, so we will replace them with alternative traffic calming measures.

A firm of engineering consultants, Pell Frischmann, was appointed to undertake the feasibility and design work. This is a highly consultative process involving several stages to reach a design that addresses community concerns and physical constraints. We have now had three rounds of consultation, which have been enormously helpful in steering the evolution of the designs. We are pleased to say there is wide support from local residents, and we have also received support from Highland Council. View a report summarising the most recent consultation round.

View the current proposals

The Culbokie Active Travel Route continues to make progress, and we are optimistic it will be completed in 2023/4, with a reduced speed limit in the village, enhanced traffic calming and footpaths on both sides of the main road.

The design has been converted into detailed technical drawings, and The Highland Council has applied to Sustrans for construction funding. We will hear back from them in the second half of 2023, and provided they approve the application, we expect the construction work to be put to tender soon after that.